Doctor's Derby Backers Will Need Some Patience

It has required plenty of imagination to see the Chester Vase as a Derby trial in recent years, but perhaps we are just taking too narrow a view. Soldier Of Fortune, last year's winner, finished fifth at Epsom but cantered home in the Irish Derby a few weeks later, and the same race is now the target for Doctor Fremantle, who beat All The Aces in the latest running of the Vase more comprehensively than the half-length margin might suggest.

Neither of the first two horses home yesterday is entered for the Epsom Classic, and since it was five lengths back to Pampas Cat in third, there will need to be stronger trials than this before June 7 or the punters will be betting blind. Aidan O'Brien, meanwhile, will surely find a better candidate than Vivaldi, who was never traveling yesterday and finished well beaten. There was still some enlightenment to be gleaned from the race, though, if only because Teddy Grimthorpe, Khalid Abdullah's racing manager, was so ready to dismiss the idea of a supplementary entry for Epsom.

Eighty thousand pounds is petty cash to Abdullah, which suggests a feeling in the camp that Twice Over, the Craven Stakes winner and current Derby favorite, is well ahead of Doctor Fremantle, at this stage at least.

Doctor Fremantle was winning for only the second time in five starts yesterday, but he has improved with every outing and is bred to stay 12 furlongs in his sleep. A slow start forced Ryan Moore to take a midfield position hard against the rail but as soon as he had a clear run, Doctor Fremantle quickened well along the rail, and he may now go to the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot on the way to The Curragh. "He missed the break and then it was a bit of a muddling race before he slipped through nicely on the rails," Grimthorpe said. "He pricked his ears and idled a bit, and then went on through with it, which was really nice.

"Twice Over is in the Dante [at York] next week and he's in good form, and we're hopefully aiming towards the Derby with him. This horse isn't in the Derby, and the plan is to bring him on gently. He could benefit from another month, and if he's good enough, the Irish Derby could be set up well for him. Twice Over would be our main and only Derby contender at this stage. The Dante is the best Derby trial and that will be a crucial race that will tell us where we are going."

The main supporting race on yesterday's card, the Huxley Stakes, has been a benefit event for Maraahel for the last three years, but he came up a neck short in his attempt at a fourth straight win thanks to an excellent front-running ride by Darryll Holland on Championship Point.

Maraahel and Championship Point disputed the lead from the off, and were soon half a dozen lengths clear of the field. It would have been easy for either Holland or Richard Hills to push a little too hard, but while the pack closed in two out, they did not reach the leaders, and Championship Point found a little extra in the final strides to secure the victory.

"When I saw the ground was drying out, I knew we had to go again," Mick Channon, the winner's trainer, said. "It is great that he has managed to win a Group race," he added.

Majounes Song, the outsider of the field, became the third horse in two days at Chester to pull up with a leg injury, but was later reported to be walking soundly.